Friday 25 January 2008

GPS-enabled internet

A GPS-enabled internet, accessible everywhere, means spatially relevant information on the run, like train timetables, shopping centre locations and opening hours, movie times, petrol prices and so on. It would also mean you don't need to search much, because there's only so much information that's relevant to the place where you're standing. You might need to widen the field of inquiry to a larger definition of "local" sometimes, though, like when you're looking for the nearest service of some kind.

I say there's only limited information relevant to your current position, but I guess that's not entirely true. It depends on your focus. If you're doing a geological survey, the constellations currently visible from your location is of no help at all. If you're waiting for a bus, the rare insect species known to live nearby will probably not interest you. Still, you won't need to search for a result that matches your location because the reference locations of all pieces of information are known and can be matched automatically.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - People have been talking about this for a while.
PPS - It only made more sense to me recently.

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